Tyson Fury wanted to retire from boxing after forgetting how many times he had been knocked down by Deontay Wilder in their trilogy fight.
The 'Gypsy King' is regarded as the leading heavyweight in the world and has made a U-turn on his plans to retire this year instead accepting a voluntary defence against Derek Chisora on December 3 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Fury defeated Dillian Whyte in his mandatory defence in April, which came after an epic third meeting with bitter rival Wilder last October.
After recovering from two knockdowns in a heavyweight classic, Fury landed three knockdowns of his own en route to a thrilling stoppage win in the penultimate round to settle their rivalry. However in a worrying account of the win, Fury has revealed he suffered short-term memory loss shortly after the final bell with the events of the fight foggy in his mind.
“So while getting my face punched in for a living has put millions of pounds in the bank, a fighter needs to know when their time is up and mine is near,” Fury said in his autobiography ‘Gloves Off’. “Walking away from boxing may be the hardest thing I ever do. All I know is that I don’t want to overstay my welcome, ruin my legacy, or die from a big right to the side of the head.
"And believe me, an ending like that has felt worryingly real at times. I even experienced short-term memory loss following that bruising encounter with Wilder in 2021, when, in the hours after the win, my head covered in tennis ball-sized lumps, it was impossible to remember how many times I’d gone down. Everything was foggy, and the experience frightened me.
"No way do I want to end up living out my days in a wheelchair, or eating my dinners through a straw. After that fight with Wilder, I told my promoter Frank Warren that I planned to retire.” Fury did indeed reveal his plans to hang up his gloves ahead of his defence against Whyte which he stuck to for several months before opening the door to a fight with Oleksandr Usyk.
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Fury now appears to have rediscovered his spark for the sport and wants to become undisputed champion before retiring, having struggled with returning to life without boxing. And he has revealed that he could fight another ten times after not liking life without training camps and fight dates.
“I ain’t going anywhere. I had retirement for four or five months and I didn’t like what I tasted,” Fury said on talkSPORT. "I could fight maybe ten more times. I have everything the world has to offer and that to me is not interesting. The only thing that really gets me going is boxing, fighting and training. There are no goals for me in boxing anymore. I’m doing this because it is the only thing I know."
